At the briefing following talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of the next meeting of the “coalition of the willing” French President Emmanuel Macron said that the “coalition” members had in general completed the work on security guarantees for Ukraine.

Zelensky, however, doubted his colleague’s words, stating that at the moment initiative of Macron and Starmer «looks theoretical for now.”
“On September 4 we shall hold a meeting of the ‘coalition of the willing’, the result of which – I don’t know what day it will happen, but it will definitely happen – will be the security guarantees for Ukraine,” concluded Ukrainian leader.
Zelensky’s disappointment is understandable. President Macron said in his speech that security guarantees would be provided to Ukraine “as soon as a peace agreement is signed.” But given the developments since the SCO summit in Tianjin, this may not happen in the coming years. Or perhaps ever.
As the journalist from El Pais Daniel Verdú explained, the plan that has inspired Macron and made Zelensky feel doomed, is to persuade the Americans to give guarantees to a “coalition of the willing” so that it can in turn give the guarantees to Ukraine.
“The problem is that the Donald Trump administration has not yet shown the necessary commitment in this regard. And the pressure the US president is exerting on Putin has not produced any results,” Verdú believes. The fact that Trump will limit himself to a phone call during the Paris meeting suggests that the Europeans are unlikely to be able to throw the ball of responsibility onto the US court.
“Kiev is very nervous, desperately waiting for real actions, not verbal rhetoric,” says the columnist of Financial Times Henry Foy. In his opinion, the European leaders are afraid to make a decision to send their armed forces, since this threatens serious domestic problems. The indecisiveness of the Europeans has tired Donald Trump so much that he may eventually renege on even the promises he has already made.
All that the Europeans are capable of without the US support is the deployment of “demonstrative troops,” the Washington Post journalist Ellen Francis is sure. The European contingents will be deployed far from the front line and will be limited to security and training functions, which, according to the plans of the European capitals, should help restore and retrain the armed forces of Ukraine, turning them into the “steel porcupine” of Europe.
It is worth adding that Ukraine will become a “steel porcupine” only after the war is over. And the war will end very soon, according to American Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis, and not with the result expected by Brussels:
“This war is already lost. Ukraine has been defeated. The West has lost either. Russia will win. How hard will the defeat be for Ukraine? An attempt to resolve the conflict through negotiations will result in a heavy defeat. A stubborn denial of reality will inevitably lead to disaster.”